Haunting
by Somerlia
Summary: "Kurosaki-kun, can ghosts haunt people?" A fire at her work leaves Orihime with a vindictive and powerful ghost seeking revenge for their death, placing the blame on the last person they heard alive... [Halloween Fic. Rated T for language, death, etc.]
1. The Fire

_Disclaimer: I don't own Bleach._**  
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**Hello everyone! Welcome back to those who have seen some of my work and welcome to those who are just getting around to it! I hope you enjoy this, I've done my best to write something that will, hopefully, entertain us all for a little while. This is my Halloween fic - or one of them. As it was the only one that was even close to being completed, I had to go with this one and abandon the other until next year or until needed. The main pairing for this story is IchiHime, but do expect mentions of other ones that we'll see later on. **

**Since this is a prologue, I kept it short - but the next chapter will be promise (I try not to publish anything less than four thousand words). ****Hope you enjoy and do let me know what you think! :D**

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**Full Summary:** Orihime Inoue was no ghost expert, but she liked to think she knew a thing or two about how they worked considering how often she dealt with things like that. But, after being caught in a fire, Orihime finds herself the victim of a vindictive ghost seeking revenge for his death that, sadly, has the ability to mask his presence from even the best of reiatsu sensors. [Halloween Fic. Rated T for language, death, etc.]

**Haunting**

**By: Somerlia**

**Prologue - The Fire**

Smoke was the most dominant feature, hitting all of her senses at the same time. She could feel the smoke brushing against her skin, smell it in her nose whenever she tried to breathe… Even her eyesight was constricted by the grey cloud issuing from the raging fire only a few feet from her.

Why wasn't she running for the nearest exit like everybody else had? What possibly had held her back from the blaze?

It was the whispering, the crying – the familiar sounds of someone trapped and begging for help. Orihime couldn't help herself, couldn't stop herself and didn't want to try in the first place; she wouldn't leave anybody behind. So she turned away from the exit, running back into no-man's-land, following the distant pleading through a maze of smoke and fire.

The heat was so close, brushing against her as it licked up the walls and consumed everything its path, but she forced it away, keeping crouched to the floor. The crying had changed to whimpers, the noise so low that she had to strain her ears over the popping of the flames.

"Hello?" She called, getting no answer.

In the time it had taken her to reach the source of the noise, the fire had all but consumed everything. Even if she wanted to turn back, she couldn't – the roof from above had finally caved in, sealing her inside the kitchen and, thus, with a burning fire that, despite the heat it emitted, made her shiver. Orihime kept the handkerchief pressed firmly against her lips, hand tapping the knob to test it, to see whether the flames had consumed it.

Considering she was in the war zone, she doubted this was the case, but it was something she had learned in fire safety only a few months before, when she had first joined the bakery. She bit her lip, a shiver of fear working its way up her back when the fire popped, sending sparks that singed the ground near her feet.

She pushed the door open – only to find that it wouldn't budge.

She froze, staring at the door and then back at the flames. Neither held an answer. Swallowing, she tried to open it again, this time with more force. Then, when that failed, pulled it down and hit it with her shoulder at the same time.

"Are you okay? Hello?" Orihime called, bouncing her knuckles against the door when she heard another faint whimper. Worry gripped her heart and, as another spark went behind her, sizzling so close to her she was sure the bottom of her hair had been singed, squeezed at the organ until she gasped against the handkerchief.

_Stupid, so stupid,_ she scolded herself, the voice sounding remarkably like her best friend. She should have let someone handle this, someone who was trained with an axe to break down the door and rescue whoever was inside rather than risk it herself.

She was going to die in a fire and whoever was inside the door would die with her because she was so pathetically weak that she had stupidly tried to save them rather than let a professional know somebody was still inside.

_Stupid, so stupid, _her mind echoed.

Orihime sucked in a breath and immediately regretted it when her lungs were filled up with smoke, leaving her coughing between painful gasps at the burning sensation. It felt worse than the one time someone had shoved a lit cigarette to her lips before Tatsuki had beat them up. Her thoughts were accompanied with more coughing as she tried to force it out, but only got more in.

"Hey! Can you hear me? Open the door…" Why was she still trying? Even if the person could get out, she didn't know which way to go.

Perhaps use Tsubaki to blow out an entrance for them, but she wasn't sure where the way out was now. Her sight consisted of an area one foot around her, the door, and all the smoke and flames that were the source of her problems in the first place.

She hit her knuckles against it, blinking quickly as her eyes strained to stay open, and sank lower to the floor, hoping to stay out of the fumes for a little while longer. Maybe if she got in the room, she could escape through there – just burst through the wall that lead away from the flames…. But it wouldn't budge.

Even the noise inside had stopped. She couldn't hear the whimpers anymore – it was almost like nobody was there anymore, but she knew there had to have been. They must have finally passed out, unable to breathe in such a small area while smoke wafted in from under the door.

Then, before she knew it or could attempt to stop it, her eyes were closing and her legs were turning into jell-o, no longer capable of holding her up. She crumpled, falling into another coughing fit as she pressed herself as far away from the flames as she could.

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Arms slid underneath her and, it shocked her awake; she tried to recoil from the touch, but they tightened on her and she was being lifted, gripped against something, somebody, hard. She tried to force her eyes open, but, only a moment and they dropped again, watering from the smoke and she coughed, wondering when a lung would come up her throat.

Her face was pressed into a chest, as though it would shield her from the smoke. It worked well enough, she could breathe somewhat freely. The smoke still clung to the person's uniform – and an odd smell, like a warm snicker doodle cookie fresh from the oven…

Why would that be on a uniform? What fire fighter smelled like snicker doodle cookies? She found that to be weird, but the smell was so familiar that she didn't bother turning away from it. Instead, she found herself tilting closer to in, inhaling in the scent as it chased away the smoke.

She didn't even notice that she was outside the flames until she was being lowered onto something. The person's arms slipping away from her and unraveling the fingers,_ her_ fingers, from the arm of his uniform. In response, she tried to force her eyes open, but a hand pressed over them, holding the eyelids down and a warm, familiar voice spoke. "Keep them closed – I don't know how long you were in the smoke…"

There was a scowl on his voice that she desperately wanted to see, but his tone was so firm that she didn't dare argue against him and, instead, kept her eyes closed. It took effort though – once his hand moved, hers immediately took his place, keeping her eyelids down lest her curiosity force them to open. Her antics had him chuckling to himself and she relished in the noise – but frantic footsteps broke through the moment.

"Hey, can you hear me?"

She didn't recognize this voice, but she could hear the order in their voice and forced herself to nod, eyes still held shut tightly. Where was Kurosaki-kun? She moved one hand, feeling around for where he was only a few minutes before only to grasp at air.

A hand curled around hers, but it wasn't the one she was looking for and rather than offering her a form of comfort, they pressed her hands down onto the bed, as though fearing she would use them to hurt herself or someone else.

It did nothing but frustrate her and then piquing her curiosity.

She couldn't help herself, laying blindly on something was driving her bad – though not as much as wondering where Kurosaki-kun had gone was.

She peeked open an eye, blinking quickly against the sunlight, and dropped her hand to open up her other eye. It took a moment to adjust and even then she had to blink quickly, her eyes burning. "W-where…?" A glance down told her she was on a gurney, the thick smell of smoke told her she was still near the fire, and, craning her head around the concerned looking paramedic, immediately spotted the fire that held the remains of her bakery.

"Ma'am, I'm going to need you to lay back." The paramedic seemed alarmed by her state or maybe her eyes with their red, bloodshot look or maybe it was something else entirely. She didn't know, her thoughts consumed by the sight of the fire.

Smoke coiled tightly together, shooting up into the sky in steady streams. There was no shape, no rhythm – just a straight path up into the heavens. The fire was more contained than the freely flying smoke; she could see the people gathered around it, staying back at a safe distance while firefighters tried to put out the resisting flames.

A thought struck her and immediately her hand shut out, clasping on the paramedic's arm. He looked more alarmed than before, but she ignored him. "There's… there's somebody inside still," she said in a murmur, but, as her words took on a pleading note, it also rose in pitch. "P-please get them."

The paramedic shared a glance with the other, who nodded and jogged away, towards the nearest fireman to murmur to him quietly.

"Okay, we'll get them. I need you to lie back now," the other paramedic said, stepping into her line of sight. She swallowed, attempting to see around him, but he kept a stubborn path in front of her, carefully examining her until she was just so sick of being fussed over that she complied to his orders, thoughts consumed by a mixture of fire, whimpers, and a scowling face while she was poked, prodded, and questioned.

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**Please read and review! This work is un-beta-ed so if you notice any mistakes, don't hesitate to let me know and I'll fix it up! **


	2. Aftermath

_Disclaimer: I don't own Bleach._

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**Haunting**

**By: Somerlia**

**Aftermath**

The news had spread rapidly, despite the undeterred efforts of the police and firefighters to keep it quiet until the immediate family was alerted. It spread rapidly, from person to person to person, until it finally landed on Orihime's ears as she sat in a hard, uncomfortable hospital bed.

At the time, she had been watching the television, flipping through the channels idly while trying not to scratch at her skin. She was always itchy whenever there was an IV in her, as if her skin knew that she didn't like the sensation of a needle pricking her. If it wasn't for the fact that she was being bothered constantly about the fire, she would have just healed her injuries, but it wouldn't do to miraculously recover if she would be slaughtered by the amount of questions.

Therefore, she stayed, pouting and pleading ignored, inside the sterile room. She supposed it wasn't too bad. The bed wasn't the best thing in the world and was like sleeping on a rock compared to her futon, which wasn't even the best thing in the world either. Her room had a window, offering a beautiful view of Karakura town from the sixth floor – she would have to thank Ishida-kun and his father for giving her a private room, away from prying eyes.

It was small and, if it had a little splash of color that the flowers and get well wishes spread around the room couldn't offer, it would probably even be cozy. Well, aside from the bed, the beeping of the monitors, and so on. But, she thought, slumping back against the pillows once she finally settled on just watching the news, she was trying to think of the positive and not the negative.

The distinctive flash drew her attention to the television again – she would recognize that flash of purple and yellow anywhere. There was no sign more flamboyant in Karakura than the sign for her work. Except this shop, the one display in a side-by-side comparison to the pre-fire one… It looked nothing like the bakery normally did.

The shop always was weird, with two pillars on either side of a small, square from the front looking building that supported a bright, eye-popping purple sign that completely hid the upper roof from view. The pillars were stone, made of a knock off fancy marble that one of their more talented workers had painted on carefully, but the building was made of glass on the outside, offering a view to the oddly distorted shape inside that was surprisingly bigger on the inside than noticed from the outside.

Now, however, there was no glass. It had all shattered or been taken apart or just broken in a person's desperate attempt to leave. The bakery was on full display, glass no longer protecting it from the elements or otherwise. Above it, the sign was tilted, held up only by the darkly burnt pillar it was leaning against. The outside damaged was nothing compared to the inside, which was only charred remains of what used to be long displays of beautiful made cakes and tables for customers to sit at.

She winced. If that's what it looked like via picture, she was afraid to see it in person. This was painful enough without adding anything to it. One of the reports was speaking now, the two images fading to show her walking up the streets to where the remains of the fire were taped off.

"_Cake & Crumbs_ is expected to change locations until the clean-up process is done, but it's still a question of whether business will continue with the sudden lack of employees. A total of twelve customers and employees have minor injuries - three have died, one is still in critical condition," the blonde haired reporter said, eyes enlightened with poorly concealed excitement that Orihime didn't want to know the reasons for.

Orihime bit her lip, hitting the mute button when the woman spoke only for the camera to shift back to the station. Three have died. Was there a less blunt way to say that? A more sympathetic way to announce to people that three lives had been taken in a brutal accident and there was a chance that another was heading in that direction?

And why was this on the news in the first place? The events had happened two days ago where, no doubt, other things had come up to drown out this event. It wasn't the first disaster to happen in Karakura and even more had been killed over the years – but maybe it was because this was the first accident since Aizen had been defeated that had resulted in multiple lives ended.

She kicked the sheets off, suddenly very hot underneath their thin protection, and found her gaze drawn down to her legs. The hospital garb, a colorless gray blob, only reached her knees and didn't even tie in the back – she had to use safety pins because it didn't fit around her bust and she was too embarrassed to ask for another size. It offered her a view of her bare legs, having rode up to her mid-thighs at her movement.

Smooth and pale looking, they didn't show a trace of the fire aside from a thin piece of tape, but she knew otherwise. The front may have been unblemished, but the back had burns.

Ones she hadn't even noticed until the paramedic had pointed them out, slapping something on them while she was loaded into the back of what she thought was an unneeded ambulance.

Now she pulled a knee up, adjust the dress over the shortest pajama shorts Tatsuki was able to find, and ran a hand up the back of her leg, starting from her ankle, until her hand hit a bandage. She fought a wince, but continued anyway, trailing her fingers over it lightly. According to Tatsuki, who had been the only one allowed inside the room to help her, was hard to see as it appeared to only be a trail of stars starting from her shin to where the edge of her skirt had covered just above her knees. Her arms, however, were another story…

She found that relieving. Her school uniform was skirts and she didn't want people to stare at her anymore than they already did. For her arms, she would just have to deal with long sleeves until she could get around to healing it when no one would question the suddenly disappeared marks.

A knock sounded on the door, followed by voices. She quickly dropped her leg, pulling the edge of the sheet to her lap just in time for the door open, allowing the group to somewhat noisy group into the room. Odd, she hadn't even heard them approach, which was odd giving Kurosaki-kun's spiritual pressure and the fact that she could feel a few of them fluctuating with worry – over _her_.

The group consisted of the usual: Ichigo Kurosaki, bright haired and scowling; Tatsuki Arisawa, worriedly tired expression mixed with relief at seeing her friend again; Yasutora Sado better known as Chad, standing impossibly tall and quiet as ever; Uryuu Ishida, his glasses hiding his concerned eyes; Rukia Kuchiki, petite and dangerously angry with impossibly violet eyes; even Renji Abarai, tattooed face and red hair, who seemed to be the inspiration for the petite woman's anger.

"-a little worried for our friend, baka!" She was snapping at him, arms crossed and feet pressed hard against the floor in an effort not to step hard on his foot.

"We were just here yesterday – and she was fine then, why should I be more worried after an extra day of rest and healing?" Renji scoffed back at her, obviously unwilling to let what he thought was a correct point go away to spare himself from her wraith.

Orihime spotted Rukia starting to swell, no doubt to blow up in anger at him with some retort that Orihime wouldn't even be able to dream up, and interrupted them. "Tatsuki-chan! Kuchiki-san!"

"What are we, chopped liver?" Renji mumbled to Chad, who didn't reply aside from a grunt that had the former nodding in agreement.

Tatsuki stepped past them and approached the bed, setting her schoolbag on the floor and sinking into the chair nearest the bed. With a tired smile, she flicked auburn hair out of her best friend's face before speaking. "How's it going, kid?"

She was prepared for that question. It had been the same one Tatsuki had asked every time they saw each other after a period of worry. "Moo, I'm not a kid, Tatsuki-chan!" She pouted at her, blowing out a breath so that her bangs shot back into place.

"To me, you are," Tatsuki said with a grin.

"You act like a mother, Arisawa-san," Uryuu commented, pushing his glasses farther up the bridge of his nose. The two blinked from their private world, glancing over at the other's in the room, realizing that they were no longer in the same place as before.

Sado had positioned himself next to the window on the other side of the bed with Rukia and Renji next to him. The two seemed to be having a quiet conversation that Sado was leaning away from. Standing off to the side behind Tatsuki, were Uryuu and Ichigo, both looking mildly uncomfortable despite the nonchalant air they tried to have.

"Someone has to be," Tatsuki shrugged, running a hand through her hair before a defensive glint came to her eye. "Is that a bad thing?"

"No, just an observation," replied Uryuu.

"Anyway!" Orihime spoke up, rubbing the back of her head. "What brings you guys around again?"

They all looked at each other than back at her as though confused by the question, which only worked in confusing _her_ as well. Was it not a legitimate question? The first night and day had made sense – seeing as it was the hospital Uryuu's father worked at, they were informed of where she was almost immediately after being given a room which had been a breathe of relief for a lot of them – as they had come to make sure she was okay.

Tatsuki could be explained – her friend had worried over her the entire evening yesterday before visitor hours were over and she was forced to leave. It was only to be expected that she would come again today after school, something Orihime had to talk her into attending with frowns and pouts of them being near graduation and thus not needing more absences on their plate for something like this.

The others though? She found it almost odd that they would go to that extent. Only a little though. Her friends were close, the group tightly knitted together after everything they had been through, but this seemed so minor in comparison. She understood the worry before, but not the expressions they held now as they shifted on their feet, glancing at her every couple of seconds.

"We weren't just going to leave you in here by yourself," Rukia replied after a moment, the first one to recover or probably the only one capable of thinking up an adequate response.

"Besides, who knows what might happen while you're in here alone," Renji piped in with a shrug. In return for his words, Orihime shot him a quizzical look and Rukia glared daggers with her eyes before kicking him hard in the shin to vent her displeasure as if the look in her eyes hadn't given that away.

"Why would anything happen?" Orihime asked, all of them ignoring the muttering and complaining Renji as he rubbed his shin after he stole one of the empty seats. She didn't think anything would warrant enough worry to bring two fukutaicho to the world of the living when they had Kurosaki-kun here, who was stronger than most.

Rukia cleared her throat. "Well, considering the nature of what happened, we have to be here to perform a konso when the ghosts appear," she said, stopping a moment then continuing as though her pause hadn't been noticed though her voice had turned almost apologetic. "Some of them are going to be attached to the bakery most likely."

She still didn't see why that brought all of them here when it was something Ichigo was capable of doing himself. Then she flushed, realizing how ungrateful she was sounding. They had come all this way to see her, the least she could do was sound enthusiastic to see them! And so she pushed aside her evident confusion and focused on her excitement to see somebody rather than one of the nurses.

"Oh, okay, I guess that makes sense, Kuchiki-san," she smiled at her, rubbing the back of her head sheepishly. "Gomen, I should be more excited to see you all, shouldn't I? I blame this," she indicated to the IV, "it must be putting something in me. I bet one of the nurses are being possessed by one of the aliens and are putting something in me so that I'll turn everyone away. Then, when I'm all alone and sad because I angered all my friends, I'll be kidnapped by the aliens and brainwashed myself so that I can get close and collect all of you guys too!"

Orihime gave a horrified gasp at that, moving to remove the IV from herself had Tatsuki not grabbed her wrist, shaking her head exasperated.

"Calm down, there's nothing in your IV that you don't need," she said calmly, still holding onto Orihime's wrist until she received a nod in return. Slightly reassured that Orihime wouldn't rip them out, Tatsuki nodded, releasing her and leaning back.

"Ichigo, you're awfully quiet," Rukia remarked suddenly, breaking the silence as everyone absorbed Orihime's story at their own pace. The petite shinigami was starting to get annoyed with how quickly they would all just stop speaking, as though everything was awkward after Urahara's revelation only a couple of hours ago. And so, she was going to try to fix that and wake them up a little.

But Ichigo, too preoccupied with his thoughts as he stared out the window, didn't even hear the shinigami. After the events two days ago, he was slightly more worried than he should be. The fire felt foreboding, putting a sudden tension over the town that few seemed to be able to detect.

It was a stupid, irrational feeling. A fire was just a fire – and, considering where it had originated inside a bakery, then it wasn't unsurprising. These things just happened and this was bound to happen eventually, it just happened to be sooner rather than later as he would have preferred. It involved Inoue though – anything that involved his friends made him think of a second Aizen and it was starting to get annoying how paranoid he was.

He stumbled forward suddenly, bonking his head against the wall from the force of a book slamming in the back of his head. Rubbing the side of his head that was unaffected, he shot a glare over at the innocently smiling shinigami that held an opened book bag in her hands as evidence. "What the hell was that form?"

"What was what?" She asked, smiling wider.

Ichigo continued glaring at her. "You just hit me with a book about-"He tilted his head to read the title of the book on the floor that was in English and thus wasn't something he could understand in the first place. The only thing he could see was a midget kid with a tattoo or something on his forehead. "Whatever the hell that is – why do you even have that in your backpack?"

"It's not my backpack," she stated matter-of-factly, handing the bag over to its owner and Ichigo followed the movement with his eyes until he saw it being handed to Tatsuki, leading him to blink at her questionably. Catching his gaze, she grinned, shaking her head and handing it over to Uryuu, who thanked her and put it back over his shoulder and looked at Ichigo steadily.

In return, Ichigo muttered angrily under his breath and fell into his thoughts again, though this time his gaze was settled on the auburn haired girl in bed who was suddenly nervous under his scrutinizing eyes. The rest of the group sweat dropped at him for losing him yet again to whatever was keeping him occupied, but Rukia sighed, kicking him in the shins.

"Oi! Wake up! If she turns any redder, she'll probably blow up," she said with a wicked smirk on her lips as both teenagers flushed, looking away.

"What do you want?" He scowled at her.

"I said that you were being quiet – but now I see it's because of your hormones getting out of whack again. Perhaps being in the room with too many attractive women is starting to addle your nerves. Maybe we should have someone escort him out until he's prepared to be around us again?" Rukia suggested, switching halfway through her conversation with Ichigo to one with Tatsuki and Orihime.

He glanced around a moment before muttering, "Attractive women? I think you need your eye sight checked."

Rukia and Tatsuki twitched and Orihime smiled nervously, hiding the pang of her heart at his words. The heart monitor gave a beep at the sudden stutter and she flushed, speaking quickly to change the subject. "Does sensei know about what happened?"

"Hai," Tatsuki nodded, turning her murderous gaze away from Ichigo to look more kindly at her. "I told her before class that you would be in the hospital and then recovering for the rest of the week. Why are you taking so many subjects anyway? My backpack weighs three times as much with all the work you've got to do," she said, clicking her tongue against her teeth.

Orihime giggled at her friend's mockingly exasperated expression, but didn't answer as one of the nurses walked in after a quick session of three knocks on the door.

"How are you doing?" The nurse asked, giving the group a distrusting look as she glanced over the machines for any damages.

"I'm fit as a fickle!" Orihime nodded, pumping her fist in the air while Tatsuki moved to stand while the nurse checked over the IV.

The nurse chuckled at her words, licking her lips as she flipped the board over and then glanced at the rest of them in the room. She focused first on Ichigo's hair, looking surprised, then to Renji as she started to look more apprehensive, and then when her gaze landed on the giant that was Sado she looked horrified – everyone in the room could read the expression on her face, but aside from a twitch of anger, they didn't speak about it.

"Would you prefer to speak privately?" The nurse said, clearing her throat as she recovered. Orihime noticed though that she was angling herself by the bed as though she would use it as a shield from the rest of them and held back an amused giggle in favor of shaking her head.

Ichigo cut in here. "We'll wait outside," he said, hands shoved into his pockets as he started for the door. The rest followed suit with frowns until it was only the nurse, Orihime, and Tatsuki, who directly refused to leave the room until visitor's hours were over.

"Inoue-san, the burns are healing miraculously and you don't seem to be having any problems with your eyes or lungs from the inhalation of smoke," she commented, relaxing now that the possible yazuka boys were no longer in the room. The woman shifted, brushing blonde hair out of her face as she spoke. "Are you feeling any pains or aching?"

She had been too lost in her thoughts the entire day to pay attention to how she felt, but she didn't think aching or in pain were any of the words she would use. Uncomfortable maybe, but neither of the others – she felt uncomfortably tired and a little homesick to be so close to home yet so far away from it. "Nothing like that unless I touch them," she answered with a shake of her head, sensing rather than seeing the curious gaze Tatsuki kept on her.

"Have you tried walking at all yet?"

Orihime blushed a bit. This morning had consisted of nothing but walking to the point where she had to be escorted back to her room when the bandage ripped from continuous movement. It mustn't have been built for that, she sighed. "Some this morning," she started. Anticipating the next question, she continued, "The bandages were too tight and ripped after a little while, but nothing hurt too much."

The flexing of her muscles _had_ hurt, but not enough for her to bother telling the truth. Sooner she got out of the hospital, the sooner the fire would be forgotten so she could patch herself on and… continue as if it had never happened. After speaking with the firefighters, she amended silently.

"Right, that's good to hear. No dizziness either? The majority of the damage was done to your arm and lungs," the nurse continued.

It had taken longer than necessary to answer every question to the point where visitor's hours were over and Tatsuki had to leave, shooting Orihime an apologetic look when the questions still kept coming, one after another.

No, she wasn't tired. Yes, her eyes were a bit sore. Yes, she was sleeping fine if not a bit uncomfortably in the bed. No, she hadn't started stretching yet as her orders were to wait until she was cleared. No, she wasn't allergic to anything as far as she knew. On and on they went until Orihime was sure the questions were getting more ridiculous and it was only after answering that no, she hadn't tried juggling with her hurt arms that they ended.

Five minutes later the IV was out of her arm. Seven and the nurse was done asking whether she would prefer to stay another evening or leave. Ten and she was in the bathroom, staring at her reflection in the mirror while she switched into old, loose sweats, tank top, and a sweater. Other than her messy, tangled hair put up in a messy bun on the side of her head, she looked normal, if not a bit more pale than normal though she blamed that on the lighting.

Licking her lips, she stepped back and shoved her left over clothes into the bag Tatsuki had brought over that also contained all the homework she had to turn in on Wednesday. "All done," she announced to the empty room, blinking a bit as she glanced out the window. The town blinked back at her, lights and the full moon sending the town into shadows.

"I suppose you want to see the view too, huh?" She commented to the flowers, picking a few of them up and moving them to look outside while adjusting the others on the table so they would at least get a peek. Only a few minutes into carefully arrange her get well soon cards inside the bag and grab the rest of her belongings, the hospital turned eerily silent.

Where were the sounds of hurried footsteps attempting to be quiet or the chatter of the nurses as they passed or sat in their stations? There was no whirring of machinery, but she had left that one alone with the assumption that they had nothing to monitor with her not being hooked to them. Now, though, she was forced to acknowledge that it wasn't entirely that.

There were more rooms with people in them on this floor than just her. She had passed a few people on her treks down the hallway this morning. Not a lot of them, the floor reserved to those who couldn't be with others or those who paid even more than normal to have a private room – or in her case, were friends with a head doctor's son.

She slapped her cheeks and scolded herself aloud. "It's nighttime, of course things are going to be quiet!"

Half an hour after the nurse had left and Orihime was gripping the strap of her bag, staring hesitantly around the room. Silence was her usual companion, but never in a room quite like this unless she counted the one in Hueco Mundo. She never counted that one though, pushing it into the back of her mind unneeded in mundane life.

Pensively, she exited the room, bag swinging on one of her shoulders and every so often bumping against her hip. It was a relief to be clear of the hospital in only two days, but, at the same time, it worrying it had only taken her that long to recover. Granted, her injuries weren't something to worry about, but she didn't think people left so easily.

She stopped walking, teeth sinking into her bottom lip. She should be grateful to have gotten off so easily, it was only thanks to Kurosaki-kun that she had gotten out alive. If it was Kurosaki-kun, she mused. She was fairly certain it was though, his scent was something she was apt at finding and, even muffled by smoke, she was sure she had smelled him.

A blush crept up her face at the thought. Not only had he saved her, she realized with quickly rising mortification, but he had also carried her out and to a gurney, no doubt scaring the paramedics.

No! She shook her head and releasing her lip, trying to get the image of Kurosaki-kun setting her tenderly on a gurney while he stared down at her worriedly. Obviously that hadn't happened, though she did remember grabbing his sleeve in an attempt to get him to stay, but he had only chuckled – or, she thought he did. The events were mostly fuzzy.

She chalked it up to paranoia. _Get a hold of yourself. _It's just a hospital, not some sort of cemetery at two in the morning, which was an experience she didn't really want to repeat again.

Her legs moved again, but not very far.

Only a few steps forward and her feet hit someone's outstretched legs, sending her tumbling towards the floor and only the weight of her bag kept her from falling flat on her face. "Owie." She pressed a hand to her shoulder, wincing at the movement. She wouldn't be able to tackle anyone in a while and the mere thought had her pouting, missing the tackle hugs she sometimes got to give people.

She shifted to her feet and rubbed her shoulder again, switching her bag to her other shoulder. Her arm didn't like the added weight no matter how briefly, but she only responded with quiet murmurs of encouragement.

This is what normal people heal like. Just the mere thought of that had her wincing, imagining the people who suffered worse than her and didn't have the ability to heal it later. _The amount of pain they must go through... _She sighed, biting her lip again as she heard a distant moan from one of the rooms down the hallway.

Her footsteps quickened, not wanting to hear the noises any longer than she had to and in her haste to escape the dark hallways, she didn't even reflect on the lack of response from the person she tripped over.

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**_Thank you everyone for the reviews! Hopefully this chapter isn't a disappointment! I'm actually rather proud with it and that's not really a good thing I've noticed. Do let me know what you think! Reviewers get (virtual) cookies! _**


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